Our tech writers dug into Apple this week, discussing its new iPads, why developers choose iOS over Android, and how the Mavericks OS X is a game changer.

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Last weekend, Steve Cheney wrote on his blog that developers will begin treating Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android as a second thought, despite its 80% global smartphone market share, when compared to Apple's iOS. According to him, Android offers developers less sophisticated tools. It also suffers from platform fragmentation due to how many Android devices are available to consumers. For these reasons, Android is just more expensive to develop for.

Moreover, Apple CEO Tim Cook said in June that his company has paid $5 billion to developers within the last year. In that same period, the latest estimates have Google paying out less than $1 billion.

Bringing in his own experience, Vincent Trivett wrote, "Through my own conversations with mobile developers, even dyed-in-the-wool Android fanboys, I've learned that most go iOS first and get around to Android later because of the more attractive customer demographics. Apple users just have more cheddar, and they are more willing to part with it."

At Apple, Investors Still See Evolution, Not Revolution
By Justin Sharon

On Tuesday, Apple held its latest "special event," announcing that the new OS X update, Mavericks, will be available for free, that the new iPad mini will have a Retina display, and that the re-branded iPad Air will be much lighter and sleeker than its predecessor, among other notable things.

However, as Justin Sharon wrote, "The much-anticipated announcement appear to continue a troubling trend of evolution rather than revolution from the Cupertino company. This may be why shares responded by ending off 0.29%, admittedly after nine straight increases, even as the S&P 500 (INDEXSP:.INX) advanced to another record."

Sharon noted how the price hike for the next-gen iPad mini indicates that the smaller device is continuing to cannibalize sales from the flagship iPad. Meanwhile, Apple TV has become the Godot of Silicon Valley, he says, because everyone is still waiting for it.

Three Investing Experts on Apple's Many Smart Decisions... and One Mistake
By Minyanville Staff

Our tech writers mostly applauded the updates that Apple announced at its event on Tuesday. Mike Comeau praised the company for holding the line on price, particularly with its $399 price tag on the iPad mini 2, which he argued helps the company maintain its premium brand and avoid being "lumped in with bargain-bin Google Android tablets that are gaining in market share but not doing anything for anyone's bottom line."

Comeau also praised Apple's move to offer OS X Mavericks for free, describing it as a strategic effort to keep its users on the same OS and gain an advantage over the ecosystems of Android and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT). Also, he lauded Apple for announcing free updates for iLife and iWork that will make the company more competitive with Microsoft when it comes to word processing and productivity apps.

Sean Udall was excited about the new iPads and their powerful and industry-leading 64-bit architecture, which they share with the new iPhone 5S. Like Comeau, he considered the free updates of iWork and iLife a huge benefit to the company. And discussing Apple's enterprise market share, he wrote, "In the enterprise area, the iPad has between 85-90% tablet share and the new iPads will certainly help retain -- or even possibly increase -- that share."

"Yes, there are cheaper tablets, but this is a product category in which you tend to get what you pay for. And Apple throwing in a lot of great software with the devices just notably raised that value proposition," he wrote.

On the other hand, Andre Mouton drew attention to what he perceived as Apple's one mistake. Find out what that is, here.

Mike Comeau continued his analysis of Apple's latest event on Thursday, writing on how "Apple dropped a historic bomb on the technology industry" that had nothing at all to do with Retina displays or 64-bit architecture or fingerprint scanners. That bomb was Apple's new OS X Mavericks update, which the company has released for free to users.

He argued that Apple is giving up about 2% of its revenue in exchange for a major victory in the long-term platform war against Microsoft's Windows and Google's Android and Chrome ecosystems.

He did note, however, that "at the end of the day, this isn't a huge issue yet -- Apple's PC market share is still pretty tiny, and battling Office with the Apply-only, unfamiliar iWork is no easy task, even if is free."

Mike Schuster wrote that Apple's event on Tuesday was "pretty lackluster," but when it did get exciting, it was all about software. With updates to its OS X and productivity apps like iLife and iWork, the company has effectively rekindled its rivalry with its old and ailing competitor, Microsoft. Because the Mavericks OS X is free to Apple users, Microsoft Windows is now the only desktop operating system that costs the user money.

As Craig Federighi said on stage at the event, "The days of spending hundreds of dollars to get the most from your computer are gone." The comment was obviously targeted at Microsoft, but Tim Cook said something even more contentious about the competition. "Our competition is different. They're confused. They chased after netbooks. Now they're trying to make PCs into tablet and tablets into PCs. Who know that they'll do next? I can't answer that question, but I can tell you that we're focused," he said in an obvious dig at Microsoft and its Surface tablet.